The Retina iPad mini was launched on Tuesday to a very low-key announcement. It was really only just a small change on the Apple Store website, which then had to be picked up by news blogs. It’s confusing but Ed Dale, an online blogger, has commented on why he believes they did that. His points are as follows:

Apple admitted supply was limited, so wouldn’t want to make it easier for the grey market to get the device.

This small announcement ensured that only the biggest fans would know about it first, therefore ensuring they’d get their devices.

It avoided the typical overnight queue that has become iconic with Apple releases. These would’ve ended with a lot of disappointed customers, who would then maybe avoid Apple in future. Just think of the iPhone 5S, where the gold option sold out incredibly quickly.

That being said, here in the UK, the smaller capacity Wi-Fi models (16GB and 32GB) are still going to be dispatched in the next three business days, so it looks like Apple’s supply problem may be over-exaggerated.